Our friend James gave us a heads-up last week about Specialized’s awesome podcasts. If you really want to get into the inner workings of the company – and find out what makes their bikes so damn good – you need to take a few minutes to listen to some of this stuff. It’s fascinating.

You can either download the podcasts directly as mp3 files or subscribe to them through iTunes, and then listen to them whenever you want – on your way to work, during an indoor ride on your trainer, on the can, while you cook, or… right now. Click here to find out more.

1. When you access the home page now, you will find two blocks at the top of the page. One is a link to group runs and the other is a link to group rides. Click he one you want (based on… what type of group workout you are interested in), and you will be redirected to a page with allof the relevant information, schedules and links.

2. The left-hand margin now has a series of links that will direct you to a number of resources, from local cycling and triathlon coaches, to athletes’ personal websites, etc. We will start adding links to local races, massage therapists and other cool resources in the coming weeks.

3. Our main page now also features two graphics displaying current weather conditions. The graphics are hyperlinked to weather.com and theweatherchannel.com, so you can a detailed day-by-day or hour-by-hour analysis of upcoming weather. (Great if you’re wondering what to wear on your next outdoor workout.)

The idea is to give you guys immediate access to information you will be able to put to good use, without making you jump through hoops. Our goal is to make the Carolina Triathlon your online and offline hub for local racing, taining and other swimming, cycling, running and triathlon-related thingamajigs.

So, Athlete Focus is still in Beta and hasn’t been officially launched yet (call this a… soft launch), but it isn’t stopping cyclists, triathletes and other action sports athletes (like snowboarders, waterskiers, etc.) from signing up in steadily increasing numbers. Cool stuff.

Seriously: Take the twenty seconds it takes to register for an account (it’s both free and painless), and start uploading photos, race schedules, etc. The site will take a few more months to start filling up, but it will quickly become a great little cycling and triathlon hub, and a fantastic place to access sports-specific forums, find training buddies, and also (perhaps more importantly) find sponsors for yourselves, your teams, events and clubs.

Sign up now, tell your friends about it, and become a part of what is most likely going to be come a pretty important part of our sport’s infrastructure in the next few years.

That’s right, the Sitton Paris Mountain 20K is just a few days away, so if you haven’t registered yet, now is probably a good time to do so. You can do so by logging on to the Greenville Track Club’s website or by registering directly at active.com.

For those of you not ready for a 20K, there is a 5K option that’ll keep you on the Furman Campus.

This is a GREAT race, and we can’t recommend it enough. (Come cheer us on. Booyah!)

Production notes: See the lead runner standing above the “Y” of “Saturday”? That’s our very own Ben Schowe (manager of the Main Street store). To his left (our right) is Rusty Hutchison, also of the downtown store. The large runner on the right is Chris Giordanelli – of the Carolina Triathlon-sponsored Greer State Bank/Hincapie Sportwear Triathlon Team.

It’s that time again: ROBOCOP SMOOTHIE (our very own house band) is playing Connolly’s Irish Pub (Downtown Greenville) again this Friday at 10:00pm, so swing by and enjoy what is sure to be another awesome show.

Also, you might want to get an early start with a free membership to a new great website specifically designed for athletes like us (triathletes, cyclists, mountain bikers, etc.). The site’s focus is to provide athletes with a place to find training partners, post photos and videos of themselves, discuss their favorite sport, find coaches, show off, and even find sponsors.

The site is currently in its Beta phase (in development), but its soft launch has already attracted about 150 athletes just from word-of-mouth alone, and is sure to drawn in thousands by this summer. (Wait ’till you see this thing once it isn’t in Beta anymore!) It’s going to be huge.

For those of you keeping score, the site was dreamed up by Graham Fizer (one of the cooler Clemson grads I’ve met so far), and is being developed by the brilliant folks at Orange Coat, which is probably the best website design studio on the East coast… of the Galaxy.

Go check it out, create a profile (it takes just seconds), and start seeing out who’s there already. I don’t mean to seem preachy or whatever, but you really need to join and help us start an online cycling and triathlon community for SC. (It may not seem important now, but it’ll come in handy this spring. Just you wait.)

The 90th edition of La Corsa Rosa will begin on May 12th, and spends its first three days on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Perhaps taking a leaf out of the Vuelta’s book, the opening grand tour of the season begins with a short team time trial over 24 kilometres.

Then it has two flat stages before having an extremely early rest day. Like last year, when the Giro began in Belgium, the riders will have just over 400 kilometres in their legs before they are forced to take a day off in order to travel to the mainland. It was an unpopular move last year, and is sure to annoy the riders again next year!

Once back on the mainland, there’s no hanging around, as stage 4 is the first crucial test of the race. The climb of Montevergine di Mercogliano concludes the stage, and is a 17.1 kilometre brute that has gradients of over 10%. It only makes its third ever appearance in the Giro, with Danilo Di Luco and Damiano Cunego having previously tasted victory there.

This stage is the first of five summit finishes, with the Giro heading north towards the Alps. Stage 10 is likely to be the next key day, with a 9 kilometre climb to the never-before-used finish at Santuario Nostra Signora della Guardia.

Three days later the race heads in to France for a short time, with the tough climb of the Colle d’Izoard before a downhill finish into Briançon. Could this stage be a dry run for Ivan Basso, who will also be hoping to score victory when the Tour de France hosts a stage finish in Briançon six weeks later?

Interestingly, the Giro has also included a mountain individual time, which climbs 718 metres over 13 kilometres from Biella to Santuario di Oropa. Although the climb is not severe, with an average gradient of 5.5%, it should be a crucial day for the holder of the pink jersey.

After that, there are two more crucial mountain days, with stages 15 and 17 hosting summit finishes. The first tackles the feared climb of Tre Cime di Lavaredo, which hasn’t been used since 1989 and has ramps of over 18%. This finish comes after two earlier climbs over the Passo di San Pellegrino and the Passo Giau — all of which adds up to a brutal day in the saddle.

Finally, stage 17 concludes on the legendary Monte Zoncolan, which is probably the hardest climb in the entire race. At its steepest, the Zoncolan tops out at 22%, with an average gradient of 11.9%. It is a killer climb, and the fate of the pink jersey won’t be known until this climb is completed.

After all the climbing is done, the Giro ends with a flat 42 kilometre time trial from Bardolino Vérone, before the traditional Milano bunch sprint on June 3rd.

Some of theblogs in our blogroll (left side of page) are pretty good, so check them out. There’s a ton of stuff there about cycling, rinning, triathlon, etc.